The Inspiration Between Music and Visual Art (April 28, 2017)
Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Auditorium, Burchfield Penney Art Center
Laura Kaminsky (left) and Rebecca Allan (right)
Following a screening of excerpts from some of her other chamber operas, composer Laura Kaminsky discussed the development of Today It Rains that she is currently composing with librettists Mark Campbell and Kimberly Reed.
The work-in-process was co-commissioned by San Francisco’s Opera Parallèle and Brooklyn’s American Opera Projects for 2018–19. Today It Rains is set in May 1929, when artist Georgia O'Keeffe propels herself, literally and figuratively, away from her tumultuous relationship with Alfred Stieglitz—her husband, photographer, and gallerist—in search of a more fulfilling life in New Mexico. Kaminsky discussed her strategies for scoring the libretto.
The presentation also included images of Rebecca Allan’s artworks created through their mutual research and inspiration from the Southwestern landscape and a discussion by Allan of her creative process for creating abstract landscape painting from initial sketches to finished works.
This event was part of a three-day multi-media residency by composer Kaminsky and visual artist Rebecca Allan entitled, The Inspiration Between Music and Art, April 27- 29, 2017. The residency was held in conjunction with the Mabel Dodge Luhan & Company: American Moderns and The West traveling exhibition, on view at the Burchfield Penney Art Center thru May 28, 2017. Writer, social activist, and arts aficionado, Mabel Dodge Luhan was renowned for her influence in building communities, supporting artists, and generating a voice for modern art forms. To pass on that spirit to emerging learners, Kaminsky and Allan’s residency was designed to forge creative exchanges between artists and students.